INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 457 



Mr. Clark. We assumed that they cleaned up the hauling grounds 

 in those years and that was why so few could be taken in 1890. 



The Chairman. That statement would not prove any such con- 

 clusion because how do you know how many there were there in 1889 ? 



Mr. Clark. Well, there were 100,000 of them killed. 



The Chairman. Well, there might have been 125,000 of them there. 



Mr. Clark. Why would they not be there to be taken in 1890? 

 With all the efforts that could be taken they could only take 20,000 

 seals in 1890, and the natural inference was 



The Chairman (interposing) . Was it only an inference or did you 

 get it from some other source ? 



Mr. Clark. Naturally, we had to rely upon Mr. Henry W. Elliott's 

 report. 



The Chairman. Did you rely on the London reports to get that? 



Mr. Clark. I have never seen any London reports regarding those 

 killings. 



The Chairman. Did you not look into that while you were having 

 this commission at work? Is not that the place you got it from? 



Mr. Clark. No, sir. 



The Chairman. I mean the information as to how many yearlings 

 were killed in 1889. 



Mr. Clark. No, sir. We had no information from the London 

 sales. We gained our information from the fields, from the fact 

 they could take 100,000 seals hi 1889 and only 20,000 in 1890, meant 

 they had killed the small seals in 1889, and if yearlings were on the 

 hauling grounds they were killed. And now it turns out they were 

 not on the hauling grounds and that they did not kill yearlings. 



The Chairman. Did you not say in your report of 1909 that the 

 killing of seals in 1909 was similar to that of 1889 when both com- 

 panies cleaned up everything they could get ? 



Mr. Clark. Exactly similar ? 



The Chairman. Yes. 



Mr. Clark. The North American Commercial Co. took every seal 

 on the hauling grounds and probably the Alaska Commercial Co. 

 did exactly the same thing. Beyond that, the information came to 

 me in 1913 through the branding of the animals, that I was mistaken 

 in 1909 in assuming that yearlings came to the hauling grounds, and 

 that we were all mistaken in 1896 and 1897 in assuming that yearlings 

 came to the hauling grounds, because they do not come there. 



The Chairman. You were there and looked on and made your 

 report to the Government and say now that you were mistaken and 

 did not know anything about it; is that it? 



Mr. Clark. I do not say that at all. I say that we corrected our 

 information in the light of better knowledge that has come to us in 

 the continued study of the matter. 



The Chairman. Then you made a mistake when you reported to 

 the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, did you not ? 



Mr. Clark. I did not report anything to the Secretary of Com- 

 merce and Labor but that the quota of 1909 took every animal 

 above one year. 



The Chairman. Did you say that in your report? 



Mr. Clark. I said that in my report. 



The Chairman. Did you not say that they took every seal that 

 was not too small to be killed ? 



